Aviva Siegel

Aviva Siegel, a 62-year-old freed hostage, shared a harrowing account of her 51-day captivity under Hamas, emphasizing the terror group's use of sexual abuse and violence against captives, particularly young females. In an interview with Channel 12, Siegel, wearing a shirt with a picture of her still-captive husband Keith, detailed the dehumanizing conditions and psychological torment she and other hostages endured.

Siegel described how Hamas terrorists invaded her home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza on October 7, abducting her and her husband and subjecting them to brutal treatment, including shoving Keith and breaking his ribs. Throughout their captivity, which spanned thirteen locations including a poorly ventilated tunnel, the couple suffered from severe physical and emotional distress. Siegel recounted the terror of potential suffocation and the dire living conditions, where even the scarcity of food became a point of despair.

The sexual violence inflicted upon female hostages was particularly egregious, with Siegel recounting how young women were dressed in tiny, doll-like clothes and subjected to the leering gaze of their captors. She detailed a chilling incident where three young girls were forced to shower with the door open under the watchful eyes of the terrorists. Another young female hostage was brutally beaten by multiple terrorists, a horrifying event that left her silent, refusing to "give them the satisfaction [of knowing] that they hurt me", she told Aviva.

Siegel's narrative also touched on the psychological warfare waged by the terrorists, who took pleasure in tormenting the hostages with mock executions and threats. The separation from her husband, Keith, during their final moments before her release, was particularly traumatic, with Siegel recalling, "I looked at him and told him that I need to go, and I hugged him, and that is how I left him."

Throughout her ordeal, Siegel was haunted by the fear that her son Shai had been killed in the massacre that accompanied her capture. The relief of learning he had survived was a poignant moment upon her release. Determined not to remain silent about her experiences, Siegel has since been vocal in advocating for the remaining hostages, drawing parallels between her ordeal and the collective silence surrounding the Holocaust, stating, "The world really let me feel it stays silent, and I have a feeling that they have missed the history lesson of the Holocaust, in allowing something like this to happen."